


Water learns by Fire's side

by elizabethemerald



Series: ATLA Stories [8]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Azula (Avatar) Redemption, future azutara probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:20:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27199090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizabethemerald/pseuds/elizabethemerald
Summary: You know maybe sticking a 14 yo abuse victim in a mental hospital isn't the best. But water is the element of healing. And the two most powerful Water and Fire benders probably have a lot they can learn from each other.
Series: ATLA Stories [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1768270
Comments: 12
Kudos: 74





	Water learns by Fire's side

**Author's Note:**

> Azula is in the asylum so full warning for that, and her extremely poor mental state.

Azula felt the rush of water pour down around her. She struggled to turn but the chains on her wrists held her fast. She roared, fury and pain pouring out of her mouth in a rush of fire. Blue flames scorched the ground in front of her, as she fought against the chains. Her roar turned to a scream, turned to sobs, as with a final gout of flame she fell to her back. Her sobs echoed and carried around the courtyard of the Fire Palace, sounding scared and alone even in her own ears. The sobbing filled her head until it was all she could focus on, and the world around her slowly faded to black. 

She woke up with a start, straining forward against her restraints, her eyes wide. It had just been a dream. She breathed out, forcing more blue flames out past the grill of the muzzle the doctors kept her in. She was bound to the chair she was sitting in, barely able to do more than turn her head. Her head jerked up as the door to her room opened. Outside she could hear one fo the doctors talking to someone. 

“She’s in an unstable mood. Maybe it would be best if you come back another day?”

“I will be fine. Thank you.” A new voice replied. This wasn’t Zuko visiting her. It was someone new, younger, feminine. The water bender girl. 

Sure enough, Katara of the Southern Watertribe stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. Azula growled as best she was able past her muzzle, breathing out more flames. 

“Come to gloat over my defeat?” Azula snarled at her. 

“No I’m not. Do you mind if I sit down?” Katara said. 

“I can’t very well stop you now can I?” Azula nodded to the singular other chair in the room. The doctors kept it just out of range of where she could turn her head, so they wouldn’t have to worry about her blowing fire at them. She was surprised when Katara moved the chair so it was in her line of sight. Maybe the water peasant wasn’t smart enough to know to stay out of reach. Azula smirked but decided to bide her time. 

Katara sat in the chair pulling some water from the pitcher on the table to her with her water bending. Azula stiffened her eyes growing wider. If she intended to torture her for her crimes she would find Azula a poor subject. 

Instead Katara hardly seemed to pay attention to her. She wove the water in the air, then froze it, creating a fine ice lattice. She grabbed the ice lattice out of the air, turning it this way and that, examining it closely, before she allowed the ice to return to water. 

Azula watched her carefully, holding herself ready for Katara to form an ice knife or a water whip to use against her. However as more and more time passed Katara stayed focused on her own bending. Azula had to admit she was an incredibly skilled bender, but she was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. She shifted in her chair, clacking her tongue against her muzzle. That brought Katara’s head up. 

“Do they ever take that thing off?” Katara asked, glancing down at the muzzle. 

“Only when it’s time for me to eat, and at the express order of the Fire Lord.” Azula growled out. 

“Has Zuko been visiting you?”

“Almost every day. He doesn’t stay long, when he does though.”

“I think it hurts him to see you like this.”

“Why?” Azula snarled again, throwing herself against her restraints. “Because he wants to see me rotting in the worst cells in the prisons! Because he wants to see me executed for what I did? Why would it hurt him?”

“I don’t think that’s the reason.” Katara said slowly, then frowned. “Will you burn me if I take it off?”

Azula rolled her head to the side, allowing some of her hair to fall in front of her face. “Maybe.” 

“Hmm.” Katara looked at her for another moment, then she bent the water in her hand around her wrist and froze it. She had created a pair of rather elegant ice wrist cuffs. She stepped behind Azula’s chair. “They keep this locked?” 

“Of course. They learned quickly to take every precaution to keep me restrained.”

Azula stiffened again as she heard the sound of flowing water. She pulled her head as far forward as she could. Now was the time for Katara to kill her, or hurt her. Take her in the back, while she was bound to a chair like a coward. She felt a rush of cold at the back of her neck, and a soft keening sound pulled its way past her lips. She was panting blue flames, desperate to fight, to strike back against what was coming, but there was nothing she could do. 

With a soft click the muzzle on her face loosened and Katara pulled it off over her head. Azula stayed frozen for a few seconds, breathing rapidly. It wasn’t until Katara had set the muzzle on a table and retaken her seat that Azula allowed herself to relax minutely. She opened and closed her mouth, rolling her jaw to shake out the discomfort from the extended period of having the muzzle on. 

“They gave you the key?” Azula asked, keeping her head down and forward, only looking at Katara through the shield of her bangs. 

“No. But I don’t really need one.” She set a small clear key on the table next to the muzzle. 

At first Azula thought it might be glass, until she saw that it was glistening. Ice. Already starting to melt in the Fire Nation heat. She had poured water into the key hole, then froze it into ice to create a key and unlock it. Brilliant. 

“I learned how to do that from Toph Beifong. After she invented metal bending she carried a small piece of meteoric metal on her at all times so she could bypass locks. This way, I can open the lock and no one would be the wiser.”

Azula narrowed her eyes at that. She had seen the Dai Li do some pretty impressive things with their earthbending. But nothing on a level like this. And being able to create weapons from any nearby metal would be even more impressive. 

“Do you think you could cut through the lock with your fire bending?” Katara asked. 

“Easily.” Azula scoffed, leaning back in her chair. 

“Could you cut through it and not damage any other part of the lock?”

“Even with my hands tied I could.”

“Show me.” Katara leaned back, arching an eyebrow, her arms crossed over her chest. 

Azula took a deep breath through her nose, concentrating on the lake of Chi inside her. When she couldn’t hold any more air in her lungs, she breathed out forcefully, keeping her lips tightly pressed together almost like she was whistling. A short line of blue flames pushed past her lips. She focused, her breathing steady, shaping her lips until the fire flowed out in a white hot line less than an inch long. The heat of it made some sweat bead at her forehead, but she had done it. 

“Well done. That’s very impressive.” Katara clapped her hands at the sight. 

Azula released the rest of her breath, before taking another deep inhale. Her lips twitched with barest hint of a smile. Surely Katara would be impressed with any display of firebending and no doubt she had no idea how difficult what she had just done was, but it still felt good to have someone praise her fire bending again. It had been far too long since someone had been in awe of her skill, not terrified of it. 

The smile washed away into a scowl. She had always used her firebending to keep others in line. When people were afraid of her skill, afraid of her, they would listen to her. Except that hadn’t worked. Mai and Ty Lee had turned against her. They hadn’t been afraid of her enough. The Dai Li would have betrayed her too. Even the Fire Sages hadn’t been afraid of her enough. They crowned her brother over her. 

Katara’s smile had faded as well, watching how Azula’s face fell. She looked at her with only kindness and sadness in her eyes when Azula snarled at her. 

“Get it over with already!” Azula snapped flinging herself forward, trying to startle her into action. 

“Get what over with?”

“What you came here to do! Just do it and stop playing nice already!” Azula was screaming, smoke and fire frothing at the edge of mouth. 

“What did I come here to do?” 

Katara was playing stupid, pretending she didn’t know. Pretending that she hadn’t been trying to get Azula to lower her guard. Pretending that she didn’t hate Azula and want to see her hurt. Pretending she didn’t enjoy how far she’s fallen. 

“You came here to kill me!” Azula screamed. “You came here to punish me for what I did to you, and your people! For what I tried to do to the Avatar. Don’t pretend you don’t hate me!”

Azula’s wild screams had drawn the attention of those outside. The door opened and a few doctors and orderlies stood in the doorway, they were going to sedate her again. Knock her out so Katara could do whatever she wanted unopposed. She screamed wildly, her screams shaking into sobs, as she pulled and strained against her restraints. She couldn’t focus, couldn’t see. They were going to kill her and she wouldn’t even get a chance to fight back. 

It was what she deserved. 

She was a monster. She tried to kill her own brother. Her two best friends. She had wanted to see the Fire Nation burn the rest of the world. She had wanted to watch the Earth Kingdom die. She was a monster. She deserved to die. 

Tears flowed down her face as she sobbed, wildly out of control. She could barely breathe and the room was spinning and shaking. She could barely see through her tears, her fear, and her self hatred that Katara was standing in the doorway, stopping the doctors from entering. She looked so small in front of these adults. She was arguing with them, but Azula couldn’t hear her words past her own sobbing and the blood pounding in her head. 

Azula gave one final screaming, sobbing jerk and toppled her chair sideways. Her head hit the hard floor and sparks danced before her eyes. As sudden as that, the silence in the room became deafening. She laid on her side, her head resting on the ground, still bound to her wheel chair. A pair of fur lined boots stepped into her view. 

“Azula? I’m going to lift you up ok?” Her voice was soft. Gentle. Azula nodded without trying to say anything. 

Her world tilted and straightened as Katara lifted her chair and set it back on its wheels. Now she could see that the door to her room was frozen shut, ice filling the door frame and the lock. Katara smiled at her for a moment when she was back upright, then began searching the cabinets in the room. After a short search she returned with bandages and a clothe. She knelt in front of Azula’s chair, so their eyes were level. 

“Your head is bleeding. May I take care of it?” Water glowed at her finger tips. 

“No bending.” Azula gasped out. 

Katara nodded, and let some water soak into the clothe then began to dab at Azula’s face. She couldn’t even recognize the pounding pain in her own head. All she could do was watch Katara wipe the blood from the side of her face. She also used a corner of the clothe to wipe the rest of her face, removing the tear marks and soot from her face. The cool feeling helped ground Azula in the moment, but she was still struggling. 

“Why are you here, Katara?” Azula whispered. 

Azula couldn’t fathom what would drive her enemy to care for her. Even the doctors here only saw to her health on orders from the Fire Lord, out of whatever misplaced love or pity drove him. Katara face showed nothing but compassion. She wasn’t here on orders. So why was she here?

Katara looked thoughtful for a few minutes, not answering as she formulated an answer, while she continued to clean her face, and bandage the small cut on the side of her head. Finally she was finished and retook her chair. 

“I was hoping we could learn from each other.” Katara said softly. Azula looked at her, her head tilted to the side. “We are two of the most powerful benders in the world. I’m sure there is a lot we can learn.”

“You’re not the Avatar. You can’t fire bend.”

“Maybe not.” She picked up the key from the table, it was mostly melted, now far smaller, but with a gesture it reformed to its original shape and size. “But this was an Earthbender technique. Zuko’s lightning redirection is Waterbender technique. The fire bending you’ve shown me looks an awful lot like an Airbender technique I’ve seen Aang do. Who knows what I could do with some fire bending techniques?”

“You? You’re just a simple water tribe peasant.” Azula was tired. Her voice sounded drained even to her own ears. To her surprise Katara didn’t rise to the barb, instead she laughed. 

“You know it’s funny you always call me a peasant. It really goes to show how much you don’t know.” Azula looked up at her, confusion in her eyes. Seeing her look Katara sat back, with the clear air of someone about to give a lecture. 

“The water tribes may not have kings like the Fire Nation or the Earth Kingdom, but we still have chieftains. My father is the chief of the Southern Water Tribe. And Sokka briefly dated the daughter of the Norther Water Tribe chief. So he and I are just as royal as you and Zuko to our people.”

Azula arched an eyebrow. Her history lessons growing up had certainly never gone into detail on how the other nations were ruled. The only one she had any real experience with was the Earth Kingdom, considering she had lead a coup against their king. 

“Now I may not have all the best furs and jewels like you and your brother. The Southern Water Tribe was much more egalitarian, striving to make sure that everyone has enough, rather then focusing on one family having more than any other.”

“Interesting. I presume in the far south, you have to be, to ensure your people survive with such few resources.” Azula mused. 

“Exactly. Now if only I could get the Minister of the Interior to see that view.”

Azula released a bark of a laugh. “That old wind bag? Not on your life!” 

She laughed again. Though Katara crossed her arms and gave a mock glare. 

“And what would you suggest to convince him?”

“I suppose threatening his family is out?”

“Not really Zuko’s style. And now that I’m well known I can’t really dress up as a spirit to attack his factories any more.”

Azula sat up straight for a moment, before leaning forward conspiratorially, or at least leaning as far forward as her bounds would allow. 

“As interesting as I’m sure that story is, you have to know there is only one thing the minister cares about.” Katara gestured for her to continue. “Money. The island he is governor of has one of the most productive iron mines in the Fire Nation. The war is over, that means no more tanks, ships or weapons. Which means all that iron he is sitting on is useless.”

Katara sat back, her face thoughtful. 

“Now that is something useful to learn.” Katara smiled, a broad glowing smile that lit up the room. “See! We are learning from each other already.”

Azula allowed a small ghost of smile to flit across her face. 

Eventually Katara had to leave, though she promised this would be the first of many such conversations. The doctors nervously allowed her to remain free of the muzzle. Long after Katara had left, Azula sat up looking at the small puddle of water that had once been a frozen key. 

The singular conversation wouldn’t fix what one hundred years of war, the genocide of a people and attempted genocide of another had broken. It wouldn’t fix what fourteen years of abuse and manipulation at the hands of her father had caused. It couldn’t make all of Azula’s problems go away. But it was a start. And with all stories, they had to start somewhere. And a conversation was as fine a place as any for Azula’s new journey to start. 


End file.
